


Ben Forgets He Can't Walk Through Walls and Five is Helpful

by Dogsledwolf



Series: How Does One Live? [2]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Ben Hargreeves is Alive, Fluff, Gen, Good Brother Number Five | The Boy, Light Angst, and he forgets that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-11-24 22:00:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18170384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dogsledwolf/pseuds/Dogsledwolf
Summary: He doesn't remember waking up, or for that matter, falling asleep. All he remembers is one minute there was nothing, a blissful unconsciousness, and the next he was standing in the middle of his room.___OrBen is having a bad day and Five helps.





	Ben Forgets He Can't Walk Through Walls and Five is Helpful

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> This is a sequel to my first fic in this series but you should be able to read them separately. All you need to know is that Ben forgot to eat and then passed out because he forgot he was alive.
> 
> Also I decided to place the story in Canada since that is where it's filmed and I couldn't find anything saying otherwise.
> 
> I wrote this because there isn't nearly enough Five and Ben bonding so here you go.

It happened more than it probably should.

 

But to be fair, Ben was still getting used to being alive. After his accidental starvation a few weeks ago, he had been getting better at taking care of himself, but it still slipped his mind that he couldn't just walk through solid objects. While Klaus had been particularly helpful since he had passed out, constantly knocking on his door to make sure he had slept, eaten, showered, he couldn't do everything.

 

Klaus couldn't do everything, and he was practically useless when it came to keeping Ben from running into things.

 

Part of that was because it amused him greatly to see Ben run head first into the door or stub his toe on the stairs. Apparently the look of surprise on his face was absolutely hilarious.

 

Another part was that they were no longer needing to be attached at the hip. It was a voluntary attachment now, which honestly didn't change much. But Ben loved to hang out with the siblings that hadn't been able to see him, and, after the apocalypse, all of his siblings were working harder to get along, so sometimes Klaus would be the one doing things without Ben.

 

The final part of why Klaus couldn't help was that Ben didn't let Klaus how bad it was. Klaus thought it was a simple, 'Oh, oops. I'm so used to walking through things that I forgot to go around it,' rather than a 'I keep forgetting I'm alive and one of the most obvious consequences of that is that I keep running into things.'

 

But even if Klaus didn't completely know it was still helpful to have him around. And so, of course, it was the day that Klaus had gallavanted off with Diego at butt-early in the morning to do heaven knows what, that Ben kept running into things.

 

* * *

 

 

Ben's day started miserably. He doesn't remember waking up, or for that matter, falling asleep. All he remembers is one minute there was nothing, a blissful unconsciousness, and the next he was standing in the middle of his room.

 

He had no clue how long he had been there when he was drawn out of his stupor. All Ben knew was that he should go find Klaus. It probably wasn't a good idea to stay away from his connection to the living for too long, in case he might disappear. One of the many problems of being dead.

 

And so, Ben went to walk out of his room to find Klaus and ran straight into the door.

 

The pain erupted from his head instantaneously, and Ben stepped back in shock, hand slowly raising to the reddening bump on his forehead.

 

Ben touched the spot with disbelief, confusion growing until it hit him like the door had a second ago. He was _alive_.

 

Ben let his mind fixate on the light throbbing in his head, relishing in it. Pain meant he was alive, and alive was good. Alive meant he had the freedom to do what he wanted. Except the pain didn't last long. Ben wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing. As it drifted away from him, he could feel his tether to the real world drifting too.

 

Today was not going to be a good day.

 

Ben wished Klaus were here. He needed to be around people today. If he could be seen, if he could be _touched_ , then he was alive.

 

* * *

 

Ben went down to breakfast keeping a grounding hand on the walls as he went. He _would not_ let himself forget again.

 

As Ben made his way through the house, his hand ran along the wall beside him, bumping lightly against the wallpaper as it went. He moved his hand to the stairwell railing, keeping a sharp focus on the feeling of the smooth wood grain running along his palm.

 

The kitchen was empty when he arrived.

 

The kitchen was empty but it would be fine because Ben knew somebody was sure to walk in any minute. He _would not_ lose his grip by being alone for a minute or two.

 

He walked further into the kitchen, hand leaving the wall. He had just made it past the table when he started to wonder why he had even come in here.

 

Ben didn't need to be around people who couldn't see him. He needed to go find Klaus instead.

 

Technically, he could wait until Klaus came down for breakfast, but Ben didn't want Klaus to get himself into trouble. With that in mind, he decided he needed to go to Klaus's room to wait until Klaus woke up.

 

Ben walked through the table on his way back to the stairs. Except he didn't go through it. Instead, the table hit him in the thighs and he fell face first on top of it.

 

He let out a sigh. Ben felt humiliated and there wasn't even anyone around. How on Earth had he forgotten again? It couldn't have been more than a few minutes since he had ran into his door.

 

"Is that table comfortable?" A voice from the doorway asked, no doubt commenting on the fact that he was still slumped face first over the table, the edge of it digging into his hips.

 

"Perfectly," Ben replied, voice muffled. He turned his head to the side and found Five standing there, impeccably dressed in a suit he had bought a few days ago, this one was sans the school boy shorts.

 

Fortunately, Five pretty much ignored him, jumping past him to the coffee machine. A second later the smell of coffee drifted to Ben's nose, permeating the air around them.

 

"Aren't you going to ask why I'm on the table?" Ben questioned.

 

"Not unless you want me to," Five replied. "But it's none of my business if you don't. There have been much weirder happenings in the house."

 

Ben pondered this, rolling onto his back to give Five room to sit in his normal spot. Five took the seat, setting his mug down close enough to Ben that he could feel the heat radiating from it.

 

Did he want to tell Five? He doubted Five would think less of him, or pity him, or do anything other than mark it down in his brain and save the information for later. Plus, out of all of his siblings, Five would be one of the best at understanding what he was feeling.

 

Five might not forget that he was alive, but Ben knew sometimes Five forgot that his siblings were. A side effect of having seen all of their dead bodies when he was a thirteen.

 

"I ran into the table," Ben told him. Five nodded, as if that explained everything. Maybe it did. Five, even with his lack of social skills, could be scary perceptive. He could technically stop the story there and Five wouldn't mind. It was a nice thought, but he pushed forward. "I thought I could walk through it."

 

Five took a sip of his coffee. He looked indifferent to Ben's ordeal, but Ben knew Five was just doing what he would want Ben to do if he was in his position. Giving him space, and letting him explain on his own terms.

 

"I keep forgetting that I'm not dead," Ben told him quietly, studying the ceiling.

 

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Five asked a bit later when Ben didn't offer up anything else.

 

"Stay with me today?"

 

"Of course," Five replied. "Should I grab a book or do you want to go somewhere today?"

 

"Can we go to the Art Gallery of Ontario?" Ben asked, sitting up on the table and letting his legs dangle. "I think it'd be best to be around people today."

 

Ben knew it wasn't the answer Five had been hoping for, he was never big on crowds, but Ben hoped it wouldn't make him change his mind. It seemed so backwards to him, Five had been alone for so _long_ , and yet he still didn't like being around people. Maybe it was the difference of being _just_ out of reach and being completely isolated. Except, of course, for Dolores.

 

"I'll get the keys," Five said in lieu of a response. He blinked away as Ben let out a sigh of relief. Five showed back up a second later, standing directly in front of Ben.

 

Five held the keys up, "Let's go."

 

* * *

 

Ben didn't mention it when Five took the time to walk to the car with him.

 

He didn't mention it when Five made sure Ben could always keep an eye on him.

 

And he definitely didn't mention it when Five stood close enough that they were practically touching.

 

Instead, he just ruffled Five's hair in a silent show of thanks.

 

A show of thanks that he was positive Five didn't appreciate, but hey, what are brothers for?


End file.
